Centralized checklist management

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described that provide a centralized system to coordinate disparate teams involved in handling various tasks, including, for example, the tasks relating to settling the affairs of an estate. In one described example, such techniques provide a centralized estate resource system (ERS) to create, manage, track, and coordinate task checklists and actions for each of the teams including interactions between teams. The ERS may assign specific personnel within each team to a given estate, send notifications and warnings to appropriate team members when tasks are due or complete, and facilitate messaging between team members to communicate when information is needed or has become available. The ERS may provide updated status and information across teams without violating privacy or security regulations, as may be the case with email, text messages, or voice messages.

CROSS REFERENCE

This application is a continuation application of and claims priority toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/339,529 filed on Oct. 31, 2016,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to computing devices and systems for managingtasks, including those relating to financial asset management.

BACKGROUND

When a bank customer dies, the decedent customer's representative (e.g.,the executor) needs to work with the bank to settle or reconcile theassets held by the bank for the decedent's estate. In some examples, thebank may serve as the executor or trustee and may directly handle theestate settlement services. In other examples the bank may serve as anagent for the decedent's representative. As an example, an estatesettlement services provided by the bank may include the tasks of payingfuneral expenses out of the decedent's accounts, paying creditors anddebts out of the decedent's accounts, making distributions tobeneficiaries for any trusts or “payable-on-death” accounts held by thedecedent at the bank, closing or transferring ownership of accounts andsafety deposit boxes held by the decedent at the bank, managing the saleand distribution of tangible personal property of the decedent, filingtax returns for decedent's estate, and similar transactions.

The estate settlement services provided by the bank may include multipleteams to perform the different tasks listed above. Each of the teams maywork on a different portion of the decedent's estate, e.g., willadministration, tangible personal property, tax and relationshipmanagement. As such, each of the teams may perform completely separatetasks, access completely different resources, and keep completelyseparate records pertaining to the respective portion of the decedent'sestate. Although each of the teams may ostensibly operate in a silo, theteams may be dependent on each other for at least some information. Forexample, an estate tax team may need to wait for a tangible personalproperty team to sell and distribute the decedent's tangible personalproperty before preparing and filing the estate taxes. To obtain thenecessary information, a member of a first team typically emails, texts,calls, or otherwise messages a member of another team of the estatesettlement services to request the information, which is time consuming,difficult to track and manage, and may violate privacy or securityregulations.

When the decedent's executor or representative is not the bank, oftenthe decedent's representative is close to the decedent, such as thedecedent's spouse, child, sibling, or another of the decedent'ssurviving family members or friends. The representative may be grievingand dealing with many issues surrounding the death of their loved one.In working with the bank to settle the decedent's financial assets, thedecedent's representative may be required to provide similar details anddocumentation to each of the different teams of the estate settlementservices. As such, the estate settlement services provided by the bankmay actually add to the representative's burden by effectively causingthe representative to relive their loved one's death with repetitiverequests for information from each estate services team.

SUMMARY

In general, the disclosure is directed to managing tasks performed byvarious teams including, for example, teams that manage an estatesettlement. In one described example, a centralized estate resourcesystem (ERS) is configured to coordinate and manage an estate settlementservices to settle or reconcile the estate of a decedent bank customer.The estate settlement services provided by the bank may include aplurality of estate settlement services teams to perform the differenttasks involved in settling or reconciling the decedent's estate assets.Each of the teams may work on a different portion of the decedent'sestate.

The techniques described by this disclosure provide a centralized systemto coordinate the disparate teams involved in settling or reconcilingthe affairs of a given estate. These techniques provide a centralizedestate resource system to create, manage, track, and coordinate taskchecklists and actions for each of the teams including interactionsbetween teams. The centralized system, according to the techniques ofthis disclosure, may assign specific personnel within each team to agiven estate, send notifications and warnings to appropriate teammembers when tasks are due or complete, and facilitate messaging betweenteam members to communicate when information is needed or has becomeavailable. The system may provide updated status and information acrossteams without violating privacy or security regulations, as may be thecase with email, text messages, or voice messages. In addition, thesystem may provide a centralized repository for information, thusavoiding repeated queries for the same information and documents to thedecedent's representative.

In one example, the disclosure is directed to a method comprisingcreating, by a computing system, a first task checklist for a first teamand a second task checklist for a second team, wherein the first taskchecklist includes a first task item not included on the second taskchecklist, wherein the second task checklist includes a second task itemnot included on the first task checklist, and wherein the second taskitem is dependent upon the first task item so that completion of thefirst task item must precede completion of the second task item;outputting, by the computing system and to a first computing deviceaccessible to the first team, a first user interface that includes arepresentation of the first task checklist including the first task itembut not the second task item; outputting, by the computing system and toa second computing device accessible to the second team, a second userinterface that includes a representation of the second task checklistincluding the second task item displayed as having a locked status andbeing not selectable; determining, by the computing system, that thefirst task item has been completed; and outputting, by the computingsystem and to the second computing device, an updated second userinterface that includes an updated representation of the second taskchecklist displaying the second task item as having an unlocked statusand being selectable, and wherein the second task item, when presentedin the updated second user interface, is visibly distinguishable fromthe second task item as presented in the second user interface.

In another example, the disclosure is directed to a computing systemhaving a storage system and processing circuitry, wherein the processingcircuitry has access to the storage system and is configured to: createa first task checklist for a first team and a second task checklist fora second team, wherein the first task checklist includes a first taskitem not included on the second task checklist, wherein the second taskchecklist includes a second task item not included on the first taskchecklist, and wherein the second task item is dependent upon the firsttask item so that completion of the first task item must precedecompletion of the second task item; output, to a first computing deviceaccessible to the first team, a first user interface that includes arepresentation of the first task checklist including the first task itembut not the second task item; output, to a second computing deviceaccessible to the second team, a second user interface that includes arepresentation of the second task checklist including the second taskitem displayed as having a locked status and being not selectable;determine that the first task item has been completed; and output, tothe second computing device, an updated second user interface thatincludes an updated representation of the second task checklistdisplaying the second task item as having an unlocked status and beingselectable, and wherein the second task item, when presented in theupdated second user interface, is visibly distinguishable from thesecond task item as presented in the second user interface.

In another example, the disclosure is directed to a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed,configure processing circuitry of a computing system to: create a firsttask checklist for a first team and a second task checklist for a secondteam, wherein the first task checklist includes a first task item notincluded on the second task checklist, wherein the second task checklistincludes a second task item not included on the first task checklist,and wherein the second task item is dependent upon the first task itemso that completion of the first task item must precede completion of thesecond task item; output, to a first computing device accessible to thefirst team, a first user interface that includes a representation of thefirst task checklist including the first task item but not the secondtask item; output, to a second computing device accessible to the secondteam, a second user interface that includes a representation of thesecond task checklist including the second task item displayed as havinga locked status and being not selectable; determine that the first taskitem has been completed; and output, to the second computing device, anupdated second user interface that includes an updated representation ofthe second task checklist displaying the second task item as having anunlocked status and being selectable, and wherein the second task item,when presented in the updated second user interface, is visiblydistinguishable from the second task item as presented in the seconduser interface.

The details of one or more examples of the disclosure are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features,objects, and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from thedescription and drawings, and from the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example estateresource system that consolidates and manages estate settlementactivities across a variety of banking and external functions inaccordance with one or more techniques of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example computingdevice that may implement an estate resource system, in accordance withone or more techniques of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating some examples of functions anestate resource system may consolidate and manage in accordance with oneor more techniques of this disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating further details of a tangiblepersonal property process that an estate resource system may consolidateand manage.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example ERS estateaccount summary display in accordance with one or more techniques ofthis disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for an estateresource system in accordance with one or more techniques of thisdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure is directed to a centralized estate resource systemconfigured to coordinate and manage an estate settlement services tosettle or reconcile the estate of a decedent bank customer. The estatesettlement services provided by the bank may include a plurality ofestate settlement services teams to perform the different tasks involvedin settling or reconciling the decedent's estate assets. Each of theteams may work on a different portion of the decedent's estate. As anexample, the estate settlement services may include an estate settlementadministration (ESA) team, an estate services liaison team (ESLT), acentral wills filing administration (CWFA) team, a tangible personalproperty (TPP) team, an estate advisory specialist (EAS) team, and anestate tax team (ETT).

In a conventional system, each of the teams may use separate computingsystems designed and directed toward their different tasks, and keepseparate records for the respective portion of the decedent's estate.The separate computing systems of the different teams do not shareinformation, and members of one of the teams do not have access to thecomputing systems or records of another one of the teams. Thus, in theconventional system, one team must rely on manual means to exchangeinformation or check on the progress of the other teams with respect totheir respective portions of the decedent's estate. In the conventionalsystem, to obtain information or check on progress, a member of a firstteam typically emails, texts, calls, or otherwise messages a member ofanother team of the estate settlement services to request theinformation, which is time consuming, difficult to track and manage, andmay violate privacy or security regulations.

In addition, from the perspective of a decedent's representative (e.g.,the executor), working with the estate settlement services teams in aconventional system may include providing multiple copies of documents,repeating answers to the same questions multiple times, and receivingunclear and possibly conflicting answers from the different teams. Wherethe bank is the executor or trustee, or agent for the executor, thisprocess may be inefficient. In the case where the decedent'srepresentative may be a family member dealing with grief and overwhelmedalready with the decedent's affairs, answering the same questions andbeing shuffled between teams for answers could be frustrating andtraumatic.

The techniques described by this disclosure provide a centralized systemto coordinate the disparate teams involved in settling or reconcilingthe affairs of a given estate. These techniques provide a centralizedsystem to create, manage, track, and coordinate task checklists andactions for each of the teams including interactions between teams. Thecentralized system, according to the techniques of this disclosure, mayassign specific personnel within each team to a given estate, sendnotifications and warnings to appropriate team members when tasks aredue or complete, and facilitate messaging between team members tocommunicate when information is needed or has become available. Thesystem may provide updated status and information across teams withoutviolating privacy or security regulations, as may be the case withemail, text messages, or voice messages. In addition, the system mayprovide a centralized repository for information, thus avoiding repeatedqueries for the same information and documents to the decedent'srepresentative.

The techniques described by this disclosure allows an estate'srepresentative to receive clear consistent instructions on whatinformation the estate's representative should provide and what actionsto take to resolve the affairs of an estate. The techniques, accordingto this disclosure, enable an estate's representative to provide asingle copy of documentation, provide information only one time, andhave a single point of contact that can provide consistent, accurate andup-to-date status on progress. Similarly, should an estate'srepresentative contact a team member that is different than thedesignated point of contact, the techniques of this disclosure allow anyteam member with access to the account to provide the estate'srepresentative the status and progress of the estate without the need totransfer or redirect the question. The techniques of this disclosure mayserve to make the estate settlement process more efficient in general aswell as provide reports and performance information across all theestate settlement services teams associated with the financialinstitution, to further improve the estate settlement process. The terms“bank” and “financial institution” may be used interchangeably in thisdisclosure.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example estateresource system that consolidates and manages estate settlementactivities across a plurality of estate settlement services teams, inaccordance with one or more techniques of this disclosure. An estateresource system 100 may interact with the plurality of teams involved inresolving the estate assets, as well as receive information from andtransfer information to a variety of systems and services both withinand external to the bank.

Estate resource system 100 may coordinate the efforts of a plurality ofestate settlement services teams involved in resolving the affairs of agiven estate. Estate resource system (ERS) 100 may include a centralizedsystem to create, manage, track and coordinate checklists associatedwith an estate account from each estate settlement services team. Thecoordination and tracking may include interactions between teams. ERS100 may be configured to assign specific personnel (i.e. a team member)within each of the teams to a given estate account, set up and controleach assigned team member's authorized level of access for an estateaccount, and a provide notifications to the assigned team members whentasks are due, when tasks are completed, or when information is neededor available.

ERS 100 may interact with a variety of teams that may be involved withresolving an estate's affairs. The example of FIG. 1 depicts ERS 100transferring information to and from an estate services liaison team(ESLT) 110, a tangible personal property (TPP) team 112, an estatesettlement administration (ESA) team 114, a central wills filingadministration (CWFA) team 115, an estate tax preparation (ETT) team 116as well as other teams 118. In other examples, ERS 100 may interact withadditional or fewer teams. Estate resource system 100 may be executed ona single computing device or across two or more computing devices in anetwork associated with the financial institution. Each of estatessettlement services teams 110-118 may include one or more team membercomputing devices. For example, the team member computing devices maycomprise terminals or computers operated by the team members andconfigured to log into ERS 100.

ERS 100 may receive information from and transfer information to avariety of other systems and processes both within and external to thebank. These other systems and processes may include investment andfiduciary services (IFS) 120, checking and savings 130, trust management140 and other services 150. In some examples, a team member may manuallyenter information from one or more other systems or processes becauseERS 100 may not receive the information systematically.

In some examples an “estate account” may be called a “relationship.” Anestate account, or “relationship,” will generally represent one death(and a relationship team will be assigned to work on that individual'sdeath-related accounts). In the example of FIG. 1 , ERS 100 functions onan estate account or relationship level. Each death creates a newdecedent “relationship”. Eventually there are always some accounts(either new or existing) within each decedent's estate account, i.e.revocable trust, terminating irrevocable trust and similar accounts.Upon receipt of a death notification form (DNF), ESLT 110 may assign theestate account to an ESLT team member, which in some examples may alsobe called an ESLT administrator. The ESLT administrator may decide howto handle “existing” accounts within the estate account. For example, tomanage the account through estate settlement process or to a terminationgroup. “Existing” accounts, such as IFS 125 accounts, may automaticallypull over into ERS 100 because they are tied to a decedent's socialsecurity ID. Sometimes not all existing accounts within one estateaccount will be directed to go through the estate services process. Asone example, if there are no existing accounts but this is a new IFSbusiness prospect, then the ESLT administrator may work with the clientfacing team member, such as a financial adviser in an IFS 120 role, todetermine the bank's proposed role. If the proposed role is to performdeath settlement, i.e. serve as trustee of a deceased grantor trust, asexecutor of a probate estate, or as Agent for death settlement. Then theESLT administrator may vet the opportunity according to bank andcompliance standards for new business. If accepted the estate accountgoes through an estate settlement process.

ERS 100 may include an estate account management unit 102 and achecklist manager unit 104, along with other components not shown inFIG. 1 . Estate account management unit 102 may be configured to createan estate account for the decedent, and identify and associate financialaccounts internal or external to a bank with the decedent's estateaccount. The financial accounts may be related to the decedent's assetcategories. Some examples of asset categories include: trusts, agency,guardianship, brokerage, marketable securities, cash or cashequivalents, life insurance, annuities, retirement benefits, closelyheld interests, oil, gas or mineral interests, mortgages, promissorynotes or other receivable notes, non-assets, debts, liabilities, loans,and funeral expenses. Assets may be held by a bank or by a third party.

In addition, estate account management unit 102 may automatically assignat least one team member of each of the estate settlement services teams110-118, to the estate account for the decedent. In other words, estateaccount management unit 102, or another component of ERS 100, may beconfigured to manage the assignment of at least one team member of eachof the plurality of estate settlement services teams to the estateaccount. In one example, estate account management unit 102 may assign ateam member of each of the estate reconciliation teams based on ageographic state in which the decedent resided upon his or her death. Inother examples, estate account management unit 102 may notify a teamsupervisor to assign a team member to a new estate account. In somecases, ERS 100 may be configured to manage assignment of the at leastone team member of each of the plurality of estate settlement servicesteams 110-118 to the estate account.

Estate settlement may include many different steps and transactions. Toensure a complete service and that nothing important is missed, ERS 100may develop one or more checklists. The items included in each of thechecklists may indicate tasks or steps to be completed by team membersof a respective one of the plurality of estate settlement services teamsto settle the estate assets of the decedent. Checklist manager unit 104may create, edit, manage, track and coordinate the task checklists foreach of the estate settlement services teams 110-118, and interactionsbetween the task checklists for the teams. Checklist manager unit 104may also enable team members of each of the estate settlement servicesteams 110-118 to modify and/or view the task checklists.

Checklist manager unit 104 may be configured to generate the taskchecklists for the plurality of estate settlement services teams 110-118based on the estate asset information for a given decedent. An estateaccount for the given decedent may differ greatly from an estate accountfor another decedent. As such, the tasks required to settle the estateaccount for the given decedent may be different than that of anotherestate account. In addition, certain checklist item details may haverestricted access based on privacy, security or legal restrictions.Checklist manager unit 104, or another unit of ERS 100, therefore, mayonly allow an authorized team member of one of the plurality of estatesettlement services teams to indicate that one or more of the tasks havebeen completed and/or store additional remarks, information, documents,and other items associated with the estate account along with thechecklist.

For some tasks or steps included in a task checklist, it may not matterin which order the tasks are completed. But some tasks are conditionalor depend on the results of other tasks or steps. ERS 100 may havesignificant advantages over separate, uncoordinated team checklists whenchecklist steps from a first team depend on checklist steps from anotherteam. In some examples, checklists within ERS 100 are in sequentialorder. Checklist manager unit 104 within ERS 100 may prompt a user toseek approval for the situation where a user needs an exception to skipa step. Checklist manager unit 104 may prompt the user to get exceptionapproval prior to that user being able to proceed with skipping the stepand completing the checklist.

In the example of FIG. 1 , checklist manager unit 104 manages thechecklists such that each team's progress toward completion of theirchecklist may be visible to authorized team members of the other teams.Checklist manager unit 104 may update and manage a checklist for a firstone of the estate settlement services teams based on input from at leastone team member of the same first one of the estate settlement servicesteams. Checklist manager unit 104 may also update and manage thechecklists for the other estate settlement services teams based on theupdates to the checklist for the first one of the estate settlementservices teams.

For example, the estate settlement services teams may need to verifythat each team is working with the latest revision of the decedent'slast will and testament. As one example, estate services liaison team110 may proceed through the first few items in the estate servicesliaison team 110 checklist, but need to halt further steps untilnotified that the team has the most recent valid will. Checklist managerunit 104 may be configured to create a linkage between the checklist forestate services liaison team 110 and a central wills filingadministration (CWFA) team 115. This checklist linkage may preventestate services liaison team 110 from moving further until CWFA team 115has verified and noted in the CWFA team 115 checklist in ERS 100 thatthe latest will is associated with the estate account in ERS 100. Thismay have the advantage of preventing unnecessary work, or preventingestate services liaison team 110 from taking action in accordance with asuperseded will.

The example of FIG. 1 depicts ERS 100 interacting with the variousestate settlement services teams. ERS 100 may be configured to assign aparticular member of estate settlement services team to a particularestate account within ERS 100. ERS 100 may assign a member of estateservices liaison team 110 in accordance with criteria within ERS 100.Alternatively, ERS 100 may send a notification to a manager within anestate settlement services team to notify the manager to assign a teammember to a particular estate account. In other examples, ERS 100 mayprovide notification that a new estate account is available and as yetunassigned. A team member may manually select the new estate accountbased on workload, or other criteria. ERS 100 may update a status screenfor the estate account that shows the assigned team member.

ERS 100 may generate an at least partially customizable checklist totrack the status of ESLT 110 tasks for the estate account. A partiallycustomizable checklist may include items that the team member may add ordelete, depending on the situation of the particular estate account. Forexample, a team member may customize a checklist based upon if thedecedent is a new or existing client, because there may be differentregulatory or other compliance requirements for vetting each type ofclient. In other examples, ERS 100 may auto customize the checklist inthat ERS 100 pulls over all existing accounts related to the decedent'ssocial security number. Existing accounts may have specific requirementsin the checklist for the ESLT administrator to address. If there are noexisting accounts for a decedent, then ERS 100 would not pull over andauto customize the checklist.

Some example checklist items for an ESLT 110 member may includereceiving a death notification, starting an estate account based on thedeath notification, and beginning to gather any governing documents.Death notification can come from a variety of sources, including theestate executor or another representative. The ESLT 110 member mayrequest additional documents or information from the estaterepresentative to help determine whether the bank should agree to assistthe estate in settling the estate's affairs. For example, if a decedenthad most of his investments and other affairs under management with adifferent bank, or had a simple account with few assets, the bank maydecide not to handle the decedent's estate. ERS 100 may be configured todetermine which information to request, and determine, based on anobjective set of criteria, whether the bank should proceed with managinga decedent's estate. ESLT 110 may further notify the decedent'srepresentative whether or not the bank will handle the estate's affairs.If the bank decides to handle the estate, ESLT 110 may proceed withfurther steps, including opening the estate account in ERS 100 andsetting up relationships in ERS 100 between the decedent's estateaccount and team members of the estate settlement services teams.

Another example of an estate settlement services team may include thetangible personal property (TPP) team 112, which may include teammembers in one or more states, depending on where tangible personalproperty is located. ERS 100 may be configured to establish arelationship between the estate account for the decedent and at leastone team member of a tangible personal property team 112 in each statecontaining estate property. Tangible personal property may includemoveable property such as automobiles, pets, boats, firearms,collectibles, farm equipment and similar items. Items such as realestate or intangible personal property such as intellectual property,stocks and similar items may be handled by other teams. Further detailsof an example TPP team process will be described in FIG. 4 below.

If the business is accepted, Estate settlement administration (ESA) team114 may perform a variety of steps during the settlement of an estate.ERS 100 may be configured to manage and track the actions of ESA team114, including interactions with other teams and third party resourcesand actors. Some example of ESA team 114 checklist items may includereviewing the estate's assets and engaging a certified public accountant(CPA) and/or an attorney. ESA team 114 may interact with Estate Tax Team(ETT) 116 to help establish the cost basis for certain assets, provideinformation on gift taxes, close out income tax, and similar actions.For estates with existing or testamentary trusts, ESA team 114 maycoordinate actions with trust management department 140 or, as needed,third party trust management. ESA team 114 may contact beneficiarieslisted in the will as well as prepare a plan to distribute assets. Forestates without a will, or where certain assets are not covered by avalid will, the checklist for ESA team 114 may also include arrangingfor any required notices, including public notices. ESA team 114 mayalso need to contact government services such as the Veteran'sAdministration, Social Security, as well as other providers ofretirement or disability benefits. The checklist for ESA team 114 mayalso include paying any funeral expenses, creditors or other debts andensuring the taxes for the estate have been paid before making finaldistributions to beneficiaries. The ESA team 114 checklist may includeother steps not specifically mentioned in this disclosure.

ESA team 114 may be the team assigned as the point of contact with thedecedent's representative (e.g., executor) and beneficiaries on certainaccount types (e.g., those accounts below a certain market value). Onaccounts over a certain market value, an estate advisory specialist willserve as the initial primary point of contact for the relationshipbeneficiaries. It may be beneficial for both the financial institutionand for the decedent's representative and beneficiaries to have asingle, consistent point of contact between the financial institutionand the estate. A consistent point of contact with ERS 100 may enablemore efficient and accurate status reports to the estate'srepresentative. Limiting direct communication to ESA team 114 or anestate advisory specialist may also provide a degree of comfort to anestate's representative that a request for details associated with theestate is a legitimate request, rather than an attempt at fraud oridentity theft. If another team requires further information, ERS 100may notify ESA team 114 to contact the estate's representatives andcollect the information. Limiting such requests for information to acentral point of contact may also prevent an estate's representativefrom receiving requests for duplicate information from ERS 100. ERS 100may store copies of needed information and make the informationavailable to an authorized team member.

By making the checklist progress of ESA team 114 available to the otherteams, ERS 100 may have significant advantages over separatelymaintained checklists stored in separate team folders or files. ERS 100may maintain the information gathered by ESA team 114 from thedecedent's representative and/or bank services 120-150 in a central,secure location with different levels of access as needed to protectprivacy or meet other requirements. ERS 100 may also send notificationsto other teams when certain documents or information is available. ERS100 may be configured to automatically forward notifications to otherteam members if the primary team member for the relationship is out sickor on vacation. These functions may be difficult, impractical orimpossible without a system such as ERS 100.

Estate tax team (ETT) 116 may coordinate with appraisers, CPAs, federal,state and local agencies to review and analyze asset information andcalculate taxes for an estate. ERS 100 may be configured to includeinteractions with several other teams and processes to both gatherinformation and to place holds on certain steps in other team'schecklists until the certain E 116 steps are complete. For example, theESA 114 checklist may include an item that prevents any ownershiptransfer of real property until the ETT 116 determines the tax status ofthe real property. ETT 116 may also include extra checklist items ifthere are assets or tax liabilities in foreign countries.

For example, a first estate account may request the financialinstitution's estate tax team (ETT) 116 handle the taxes for estateaccount. A second estate account may have their own outside accountanthandle the taxes for the second estate account. The ETT 116 team membermay customize the checklist for the first estate account to includeliaison steps and follow up actions involving ETT 116. For the secondestate account, the ETT 116 team member may customize the checklist toinclude contact information for the outside accountant, confidentialityagreements between the outside accountant and the financial institutionalong with other steps that differ from the first estate account usingETT 116.

Other teams 118 may include interactions with other teams internal andexternal to the bank. Some examples may include closely held interests,oil, gas or mineral interests, mortgages, safety deposit boxes,promissory notes or other receivable notes, outstanding court judgmentsthat have not yet been awarded as well as other non-IFS assets, debts,liabilities, and loans. ERS 100 may manage checklists of and trackactions and processes to resolve, collect, distribute or dispose ofthese items as depicted by the example of FIG. 1 .

ERS 100 may receive information from and transfer information to othersystems and processes outside the estate reconciliation function. Inother words, ERS 100 may be configured to retrieve the estate assetinformation of the decedent from at least one of the financialinstitution or a representative of the decedent. One such service mayinclude investment and fiduciary services (IFS) 120. IFS 120 may includeone or more databases of IFS accounts 125. IFS 120 may work with bankcustomers to advise and assist with bank customer's investmentportfolio. IFS 120 may include both strategic and tactical portfoliomanagement to monitor risk. IFS 120 may communicate with ERS 100 toensure ERS 100 includes all of the decedent's assets. ERS 100 maycollect other details from IFS, such as any special beneficiarydesignation for certain IFS accounts. This beneficiary information maynot be included in a decedent's will, but may still need to be includedas part of estate account managed by ERS 100.

In the example of FIG. 1 , checking and savings accounts 130 may includea variety of business or consumer accounts. These accounts may includecertificates of deposit (CD), money market accounts and individualretirement accounts (IRA). Information about checking and savingsaccounts 130 may be tracked by one or more account databases 135 or viaan asset listing contained in the ERS tool. Account databases 135 maytrack account ownership, balance, transfer of funds, expenditures,receipts and other information. Checking and savings accounts 130 maycommunicate with ERS 100 to ensure that ERS 100 associates all accountsowned or jointly owned by the decedent with the decedent's estateaccount in ERS 100. Similarly, checking and savings accounts 130 mayreceive notifications from ERS 100 of decedent's death and the eventualdisposition of the funds in any of the accounts associated withdecedent's estate account in ERS 100. In other examples, checking andsavings accounts 130 may not directly communicate with ERS 100. A teammember may manually enter the information from one or more other systemsor processes to ERS 100, such as from IFS 120, checking and savingsaccounts 130 or other systems.

ERS 100 may also communicate with trust management accounts 140. Trustmanagement accounts 140 may include trust account database 145. Adecedent's estate may include trusts where the estate is either a donoror a beneficiary of the trust. Trust management accounts 140 may providea range of trust and discretionary asset management services tailored tothe circumstances of each trust account. Trust management accounts 140may include trust and fiduciary specialists and investment strategistwho may design and implement an investment process to help achieve thefinancial objectives of the trust. The bank may act as a trustee toinvest and disburse trust assets in accordance with the trust purposeand objectives. Similar to checking and savings accounts 130, trustmanagement accounts 140 may communicate with ERS 100 to ensure that ERS100 associates all accounts owned or jointly owned by the decedent withthe decedent's estate account in ERS 100. Trust management accounts 140may also receive notifications from ERS 100 of decedent's death and theeventual disposition of the funds in any of the accounts associated withthe decedent's estate account in ERS 100. In other examples, accounts tobe reclassified after a decedent dies, such as to close an account orchange the servicing entity to ESA team 114 or ESLT 110, may proceed viaa different process and the results entered manually into ERS 100.

Other services 150 may include those services internal and external to abank. Other services 150 may range from financial and life managementservices to managing nonfinancial assets that are included in theclient's full balance sheet portfolio. Some examples of externalservices may include life insurance companies, property management,other investment services such as mutual fund management companies andsimilar services. Information transfer to external services may be viasecure electronic links or other methods. For example, a bank teammember may coordinate transactions with a property management company tosell or otherwise transfer ownership of a piece of property viatelephone, fax, mail or similar services. Another example may be a lifeinsurance company that directly deposits funds into a customer'saccount. ERS 100 may support and track these transactions. For example,ERS 100 may include the templates to send or request information by mailor fax, as well as to track the time and date of any communications. ERS100 may send notifications, or otherwise update the teams about anyexternal communications.

An estate resource system, such as example ERS 100 depicted in FIG. 1 ,may have advantages over individual teams managing their own checklistsand action items using a shared common file server, file sharingapplication, such as SharePoint, or similar separate checklists. Forexample, ERS 100 may expedite the estate settlement process because ERS100 can serve as a centralized location for the estate settlementprocess, which may result in the end-to-end estate settlement processtaking less time to reach settlement. This in turn may enable thevarious teams to increase the number of estates settled annually as wellas deliver an efficient client/customer experience, which may result inasset retention from the beneficiaries of an estate. A centralized,coordinated and linked system, such as ERS 100, gives transparency ofthe status of an estate across all teams, which may result in bettercustomer service. A linked system, such as ERS 100, may provide a robustsearch function that may allow members of the estate settlement servicesteams to find needed documents, task status, contact information andother such search items.

As another advantage, ERS 100 may be configured to accept, and in someexamples solicit, feedback on how to improve ERS 100 and the estatesettlement process in general. ERS 100 may allow direct reporting andmessaging out of the ERS 100 tool to report estate reconciliationperformance and process bottlenecks to an administrator of ERS 100. Thecentralized ERS 100 may generate reports for the administrator of ERS100 that may analyze the efficiency of completing an estatereconciliation team task checklist and identify steps that may causedelays. This direct reporting may allow bank management and team membersto further improve the estate settlement process, something that wouldnot be possible with separate, individual tracking. A centralized ERSmay also include a system change request feedback unit where teammembers, clients and others may suggest, track and implementimprovements to the ERS.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example computingdevice that may implement an estate resource system, in accordance withone or more techniques of this disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates exampleERS 100A, which is similar to ERS 100 as shown in FIG. 1 . Componentsthat represent the same functions as those shown in FIG. 1 may have thesame reference number. Other examples of ERS 100A may include more orfewer components than those depicted in FIG. 2 .

Example computing device 220 may include one or more processors 224,interfaces 226, storage units 228 and may implement ERS 100A. ERS 100Amay include estate account management unit 102, checklist manager unit104, report generation unit 202, access authorization unit 204, alertand messaging unit 206, change request feedback unit 208, dataset 210,and search unit 212.

Example computing device 220 may be implemented as a single computer,one or more server computers or other similar arrangement. Computingdevice 220 represents an example of a computing device includinginterfaces 226 configured to send and receive data via a network as wellas to one or more display units, and one or more processors 224configured to manage the data for access by a plurality of other deviceson the network.

Processors 224 may represent one or more processing units, such as asingle hardware-based processor, multiple cores of a processor, multipleprocessors operating together, digital signal processors (DSPs),application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), or any combination thereof. In general, processor120 is implemented as, or at least includes, hardware-based elements,such as processing circuitry (e.g., computer chips, including logiccircuitry, formed on silicon dies). Processors 224 may execute thesoftware that implement ERS 100A, including centralized management ofestate accounts, filtering data based on the authorization level of teammembers, determining and displaying progress of the estate account,sending alerts and notifications as needed, coordinating the sending andreceiving of information to other systems, such as through interfaces226, storing and retrieving information from storage units 228, andother functions.

Interfaces 226 may include one or more interfaces for communicating viaa network. Interface 226 may represent, for example, one or more of anetwork interface card (MC), a radio for communicating over a radioaccess network (RAN), a wireless network card (which may conform to oneor more IEEE 802.11 standards), or the like, alone or in anycombination. Interfaces 226 may also represent connections to send andreceive information to other components within computing device 220,such as interfaces to storage units 228, or user input devices such as akeyboard and display devices. Processors 224 may be configured topresent a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display unit operativelycoupled to computing device 220. The GUI appearance may be different fordifferent team members depending, for example, on the team member'slevel of access and which team the team member is assigned. An exampleGUI will be discussed in more detail in FIG. 5 .

Storage units 228 may represent one or more of any of a variety ofrandom access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), and/or long-termstorage memory, alone or in any combination. Some examples may includesolid state drives, hard disk drives, arrays of hard disk drives or somecombination. In some examples, storage units 228 are used to storeprogram instructions for execution by processors 224. Storage units 228may be used by software or applications running on computing device 220(e.g., ERS 100A) to temporarily store information during programexecution. For example, storage units 228 may be configured to storeinformation related to estate assets associated with an estate accountof a decedent of the financial institution. Storage units 228 may alsostore the task estate settlement services team checklists and checkliststatus associated with the estate account.

Estate resource system (ERS) 100A performs the same functions asdescribed in FIG. 1 above. ERS 100A may include account estate accountmanagement unit 102 and checklist manager unit 104, which also performthe same functions as described in FIG. 1 . For example, processors 224may use checklist manager unit 104 to notify a first team that a taskstep that is conditional on a task from second team is available forcompletion. For example, a team member from a first team may view theirteam checklist in the GUI and note that a task is not available, or‘locked’ because the task needs input from another team. The GUI mayindicate the task is locked by displaying the task as ‘greyed out’ andnot selectable, displaying a caution symbol next to the task, or in someother manner. Based on the second team completing their task, ERS 100Amay cross-reference the completed task on the second team's checklistand unlock, add or otherwise notify the first team, via checklistmanager unit 104, that the first team's conditional task may now bestarted. In some examples checklist manger unit 104 may add the task tothe first team's list, remove the caution symbol, or change the fontcolor from a grey to another color to indicate that ERS 100A hasreleased the lock on the conditional task and the task is now available.In some examples, processors 224 may use alert and messaging unit 206,discussed below, notify other teams that a conditional task isavailable.

ERS 100A may also include report generation unit 202. Report generationunit 202 may collect information from other components of ERS 100A andgenerate one or more reports. Report generation unit 202 may beconfigured to generate progress reports for the plurality of estatesettlement services teams, with each of the progress reports indicatingprogress towards completion of a respective task checklists. Theprogress reports may be viewable by the at least one team member of eachof the plurality of estate settlement services teams having authorizedaccess to the estate account.

Some example reports may include an estate settlement status reportdepicting each teams progress with each team's checklist. Other examplesmay include alerts and upcoming and past due deadlines. Bank managementand individual teams may review system performance reports that depictthe efficiency and execution of the estate settlement process. Forexample, a system performance report may include how long it took toassign a team member to a relationship, how many deadline tasks eachteam completed early or on time and other performance factors. Suchreporting may not be possible without a comprehensive, linked system tocoordinate and track an estate settlement process.

Access authorization unit 204 may manage and compartmentalize the levelsand areas of access for team members. Administrators may control whichteam members may access which information to comply with privacy andsecurity regulations or policies. For example, the tangible personalproperty team 112 may have no need to know details of a client's taxstatus. Access authorization unit 204 may authorize a TPP team 112member to view certain items on the ETT 116 checklist, but prevent theTPP team 112 member from seeing details or documents associated with theETT 116 checklist. In some examples, Access authorization unit 204 maymanage access for a user of ERS 100A based on the user's business needto know the estate services business.

Access authorization unit 204 may be configured to allow a team memberof one of the estate settlement services teams to modify one of the taskchecklists. For example, a TPP team 112 member from Virginia may beauthorized to modify a TPP team 112 checklist item for, “inventory TPPitems in Virginia.” Access authorization unit 204 may allow the same TPP112 team member to view checklists for other teams, but prevent the sameTPP 112 team member from modifying items on the other checklists, e.g.,the ESLT 110 checklist.

Alert and messaging unit 206 may perform a variety of automated andmanual messaging tasks. In one example, alert and messaging unit 206 maysend an email, text message or other notification to a team member withan upcoming or past due deadline. Alert and messaging unit 206 maygenerate an alert, such as a visual caution sign or some other visual orauditory indicator along with periodic reminders, when a form is notsubmitted by due date, for example. Alert and messaging unit 206 maysend the alert to a team member computing device via interfaces 226 fordisplay to the team member. Alert and messaging unit 206 may clear theindicator when the checklist item is cleared.

Alert and messaging unit 206 may be configured to generate notificationsof task due dates according to one or more of the task checklists of theestate settlement services teams and may send the notifications to theat least one team member of a team. Computing device 220 may sendnotifications through one or more interfaces 226. One examplenotification may include an automated message to TPP team 112 thatcertain checklist items from ESLT 110 are complete, which may allow TPPteam 112 to continue with other items on their checklist. For example,ESLT 110 may have received approval to proceed with the decedent'sestate settlement. Once ERS 100A has this approval, alert and messagingunit 206 may send an automated message to TPP team 112 to contactappraisers in the one or more states where the decedent has property sothe appraiser can begin cataloging and valuation.

Alert and messaging unit 206 may also be configured to provide acommunication platform for at least one team member of the estatesettlement services teams over which to communicate with one or more ofa representative of the decedent, other team members of other estatesettlement services teams, or an administrator of ERS 100A. For example,alert and messaging unit 206 may include functions to send manualmessages between team members, such as requests for information oranswers to questions. In another example, ERS 100A may be configured toauthorize only one team member of one of the estate settlement servicesteams to communicate with the representative of the decedent via thecommunication platform. Communicating with only one team member, mayprovide consistent information to the representative and avoidconfusion. Alert and messaging unit 206 may have the advantage ofautomatically retaining the manual or other communications linked to theestate's account. Such coordination and cross-linking information mayprovide advantages over individually maintained spreadsheets or a sharedfile location.

Change request feedback unit 208 may be configured to accept, and insome examples solicit, feedback on how to improve ERS 100A and theestate settlement process in general. Change request feedback unit 208may be configured to send a notification to team members, or others,including beneficiaries, estate representatives, and the like, at somepoint in the estate reconciliation process to solicit a system changerequest or other feedback. One example point in the process may be atthe completion of all the reconciliation steps for an estate. Teammembers, and others, may submit system change requests, suggestions orcomplaints in response to the solicited feedback request, or on theirown initiative. Change request feedback unit 208 may be configured totrack each input along with the resolution and status of each systemchange request. For example, a team member may submit three systemchange requests. Two may be fairly simple updates that may beimplemented quickly. The other may be either difficult and require moretime or be deemed impractical because it negatively impacts a differentteam. Change request feedback unit 208 may retain this information soteam members and system administrators may coordinate and trackimprovements.

Dataset 210 may retain the estate accounts along with informationreceived from other systems or directly entered into ERS 100A. In otherwords, ERS 100A may be configured to retrieve the estate assetinformation associated with the estate account of the decedent from atleast one of the financial institution or a representative of thedecedent and store the information in dataset 210. Some examples mayinclude beneficiary information, all accounts related to the estate,contact information for third parties, such as property managers andsimilar information. Dataset 210 may provide a single storage locationacross the teams to avoid repeated or conflicting information. Dataset210 may interact with access authorization unit 204 to manage access toportions of the data.

Search unit 212 may provide team members the functionality to search ERS100A for information. In some examples access to search unit 212 may befrom within a user interface for ERS 100A, such as from the ribbon bar,as shown in the user interface depicted by FIG. 5 below. Some examplesearches may include the name of the decedent for a given estateaccount, the name of a beneficiary, the name of a team member, a realproperty address or keyword search for the description of an item ofpersonal property.

An ERS, such as ERS 100A, as described in this disclosure may beimplemented using variety of hardware and software solutions. A firstexample may include a stand-alone custom application implemented usingany combination of html, C++, Java or other programming code executed bycomputing device 220. An ERS may also be implemented on a computingdevice, such as computing device 220, or similar device by using abrowser-based collaboration and document management platform such asSharePoint from Microsoft, Inc. For example, the techniques of thisdisclosure may be incorporated into a team collaboration page andimplement an ERS by customizing workflows and other built-in functionsof the collaboration platform. An ERS may be implemented in hardware byusing components such as application specific integrated circuit (ASIC),field programmable gate array (FPGA), hardware storage devices,interface devices and other components in any combination.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating some examples of functions anestate resource system may consolidate and manage in accordance with oneor more techniques of this disclosure. ERS 100B depicted in FIG. 3 issimilar to ERS 100 and 100A from FIGS. 1 and 2 and performs the samefunctions.

Death notification 300 may reach the bank from a variety of sources. Inone example the estate's representative, such the estate's executor 302may notify the bank. In other examples the decedent's life insurancecompany 304 may contact the bank, a relative may walk in 306 to a bankbranch and report the death or by some other means 308. In any case,death notification 300 may then enter ERS 100B and begin the initialestate settlement process.

If the decedent has personal property that needs immediate attention,ERS 100B may initiate urgent personal property process 320. Someexamples of urgent personal property may include if the decedent livedin assisted living or convalescent care, or if the decedent had animalsthat need immediate attention. A convalescent care facility may have atime limit as short as seven to 30 days to clear any personal effectsfrom the premises. If the decedent had animals, such as livestock orpets, the animals may need to be fed or otherwise cared for withoutdelay. In either case urgent personal property process 320 may includesetting up arrangements to manage these affairs.

ESLT 110, shown in FIG. 1 , may perform estate liaison validationprocess 310. After receiving death notification 300, estate liaisonvalidation 310 may include creating an estate account request andrequesting additional documents or information from the estaterepresentative to help determine whether the bank should agree to assistthe estate in settling the estate's affairs.

After collecting and validating any required information the ESLT 110may complete estate liaison validation process 310 by submitting theestate account request for approval 312. The approval process 312 mayconsider an objective set of criteria to determine whether the bankshould proceed with managing an estate's affairs. If not approved, thebank may send notification 314 to the estate's representative that thebank will not handle the estate's state settlement and will decline thefiduciary role.

If approved, ERS 100B may proceed with further steps, including creatingan estate account for the decedent, and setting up relationships withinERS 100B between the estate account and other estate settlement servicesteams, depending on the needs of the estate.

Tangible personal property 322 process may handle items such asautomobiles or other property owned by the estate. Tangible personalproperty 322 within an ERS, such as ERS 100B will be discussed in moredetail in FIG. 4 below.

Estate settlement process 324 may include a number of steps andsignificant interactions with the decedent's representative (e.g.,executor 302), other teams, and third party resources, as discussed inFIG. 1 above. Some example steps may include engaging a certified publicaccountant (CPA), and interacting with ETT 116 and the trust managementdepartment 140. The estate settlement administration team 114 may workthrough the steps of estate settlement process 324. Estate settlementprocess 324 may also include contacting beneficiaries and heirs, as wellas government services such as the Veteran's Administration and SocialSecurity. An estate settlement services team member may update theestate account for the decedent within ERS 100B to include contactinformation for parties outside the bank, documents sent to or receivedfrom government services or other institutions, results ofcommunications with estate representatives or other organizations andsimilar information related to the estate account. This may have theadvantage of collecting all information in a central location, avoidingduplicate requests for documents and information, and providing allestate settlement services teams with consistent and updated informationon the status of the estate account.

Prepare and pay taxes process 326 may include coordinating withappraisers, CPAs, federal, state and local agencies to review andanalyze asset information and calculate taxes for an estate, asdescribed above in FIG. 1 . ETT 116 may manage prepare and pay taxesprocess 326. Prepare and pay taxes process 326 may include interactionswith the checklists for other estate settlement services teams thatprevents any transfer of property ownership until the ETT 116, asdescribed in FIG. 1 , determines the tax status of the property. If aparticular estate account decides to have an outside accountant managethe estate's taxes, prepare and pay taxes process 324 may be omitted andERS 100B may include some interface steps with the outside accountanton, for example, the estate settlement process 324.

Other services and processes 328 may include other steps notspecifically mentioned in this disclosure. Some examples may includeresolving ownership of closely held interests, oil, gas or mineralinterests, mortgages, promissory notes, partnerships and other assets orliabilities. ERS 100B may include links between task checklist stepswithin other services and processes 328 and estate settlement 324 orprepare and pay taxes 326.

The end state 330 for each estate may depend on the situation of eachestate. ERS 100B may be configured to customize, add, delete and ignorecertain items that do not apply to a given estate. For example, for anestate with no urgent personal property, ERS 100B end state 330 wouldnot include a final urgent personal property 320 checklist. Acomprehensive, coordinated ERS, such as ERS 100B, may have advantagesover other techniques for estate settlement in that ERS 100B may helpensure both that estate settlement actions do not get overlooked, andavoid unnecessary work for items that do not apply to a given estate.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating further details of a tangiblepersonal property process that an estate resource system may consolidateand manage. The urgent personal property process 420 and tangiblepersonal property process 422 are similar to urgent personal propertyprocess 320 and tangible personal property process 322 depicted in FIG.3 . Other items in FIG. 4 that perform the same functions as componentsfrom other figures may retain the same identification number, such asdeath notification 300.

As described in FIG. 3 , urgent personal property process 420 may managepersonal property that needs immediate attention. An ESLT member, orother estate settlement services team, may determine the decedentrequires urgent personal property process 420. The team member maydetermine whether the decedent has animals or was living in a retirementhome 430. A retirement home, as depicted in the example of FIG. 4 mayalso include hospice care, convalescent care, assisted living or othersimilar arrangements. If the answer to both animals and retirement homeis no, then urgent personal property 420 may stop.

If the team member determines the decedent had animals in need of care,the team member may update the checklist to indicate animals to the ERS.This indication of animals may initiate an automated process that mayinclude notify a tangible personal property specialist (TPPS) (432).TPPS may contact submitter 434 to create and execute an animal actionplan 436. This may include moving the animals to a location where theanimals may receive care or setting up care for the animals at theanimal's location. The final animal action plan and status may then beentered into the ERS and may be considered during the approval process312. Urgent personal property process 420 within an ERS may have theadvantage of alerting the estate settlement services teams that theestate account may include personal property in more than one state andtherefore be able to develop a more comprehensive animal action plan.

In some examples, submitter 434 may be the estate's representative orexecutor, a relative or other person associated with the decedent. Inother examples submitter 434 may include a bank employee or other clientfacing partner. For example, a decedent's financial advisor may receivenotice a customer's death while working in the financial advisor role.The financial advisor may submit a death notification to the bank assubmitter 434.

If the team member determines the decedent was at a retirement home, theteam member may indicate retirement home and any known time limit to theERS. This indication of animals may initiate an automated process thatmay include notify TPPS (442). TPPS may contact the retirement home tocreate an action plan 444. TPPS may contact the submitter 446 tofinalize and begin execution of the action plan. The final retirementhome plan and status may then be entered into the ERS and may beconsidered during the approval process 312.

As described above, tangible personal property process 422 may beginafter approval 312. Tangible personal property process 422 may includecontacting appraisers and a primary family member 450. Appraisers may bein more than one state or region, depending on where the decedent'spersonal property is located. The primary family member may include theestate representative, executor or another person responsible for thedecedent's tangible personal property.

The appraisers may work with the primary family member to schedule andperform the appraisal 452. TPPS may enter the appraisal results into theERS. Entering the appraisal into the ERS may include filling in dataforms, a spreadsheet and/or scanning or uploading appraisal documentsinto the ERS. Schedule and perform appraisal 452 may also triggercertain actions by other team members, such as ETT 116. The ERS mayautomatically notify ETT 116 that the ERS contains the estate'sappraisal results.

TPP team 112 may use ERS 100 to identify and obtain addresses forbeneficiaries and send the appraisal to the beneficiaries 454. Dependingon the instructions in the will, and the desires of the beneficiaries,TPP team 112 may assist with selling or distributing any tangiblepersonal property (456) and track the results in the ERS. One of thefinal tasks in tangible personal property process 422 may includingsending receipts to beneficiaries (458).

The tangible personal property process illustrated by FIG. 4 is just oneexample to illustrate details of an estate settlement process. Tangiblepersonal property process 422 may include additional or fewer steps. Theother processes illustrated in FIG. 3 , such as estate settlementprocess 324, may include similar detailed steps as shown in FIG. 4 fortangible personal property process 422.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example ERS estateaccount summary display. Estate account summary display 500, as depictedby FIG. 5 , is an example graphical user interface (GUI) on a displayunit that may be operatively coupled to computing device 220, asdescribed in FIG. 2 . Once a team member logs into the ERS, stateaccount summary display 500 may provide any team member with access tosee an overview of current status of an estate going through an estatesettlement process. The GUI appearance may be different for differentteam members depending, for example, on the team member's level ofaccess and which team the team member is assigned. Team members mayretrieve additional information as needed starting from the summarypage.

Estate account summary display 500 may include a menu bar 502, assignedrelationships 504, accounts 508 along with an overview of the estateaccount and status of progress. The overview may include the decedentsname 510, estate net worth 512, date of death (DOD) 514 and the progressof each assigned team's checklist.

The overview may include icons and symbols to quickly indicate statusand what action might be needed. As one example, the estate servicesliaison team status box may include a person icon 522 which may indicatethat a liaison has been assigned to the estate account. A team statusbox with no person icon 522 may indicate that a team member still mustbe assigned to this estate account. An authorized team member may beable to retrieve additional information from the summary page. Forexample, an authorized team member may select person icon 522, which maydisplay name and contact information for the ESLT 110 member assigned tothis estate account. In the example of FIG. 5 , the estate settlementadministration (ESA) team and ETT box (TAX) do not show a person icon522. This may indicate that the TAX and ESA teams still need to assign ateam member for this estate's account.

Other icons may include a checklist complete icon 526, which mayindicate that the central will filing team checklist (WILLS) has beencompleted. A percentage completed indicator 520 may indicate that theestate services liaison team (LIAISON) checklist is 20% complete, in theexample of FIG. 5 . An X icon (524) may indicate that a team's checklisthas not yet been started, that the checklist has been started but is notyet complete, or that there is some other problem with a checklist. Forexample, the tangible personal property team status box (TPP) includesan X icon 524 and a person icon 522. This may indicate that a teammember has been assigned to the decedent's estate from the TPP team, butthat team has not yet begun their checklist. Some icons may also becolor coded. For example, checklist complete icon 526 may be in greenwhile X icon 524 may be in red or yellow to indicate an issue toresolve.

Estate account summary display 500 may include symbols and icons thatperform a variety of functions. As one example, ‘send message’ icon 516may activate the alert and messaging unit 206, described above in FIG. 2, to allow a team member to send a message to another team within theERS. As described above, messages sent within an ERS may have theadvantage of automatically retaining the communication within the ERSand linked to the estate's account. This may have advantages over usingan external email or other messaging system that does not automaticallyretain and link communications to the affected estate's account. Forexample, other team members may be able to quickly find answers topreviously asked questions and avoid asking the same questions.Management and system administrators may be able to use thesecommunications to identify bottlenecks and improve system and processefficiency. In the event of a lawsuit, information related to anestate's account may be found easily during the discovery phase of alawsuit.

In some examples, the send message icon 516 may simply activate anexternal email application that may send messages external to the ERS.For example, send message icon may open a new message in the externalemail program and populate certain fields in the email, such as thesubject line, with information pulled from the estate account.

Menu bar 502 may include additional functions and information. Someexamples, as shown in FIG. 5 , include home, search, assets, reports,forms and admin. Menu bar 502 may include additional or different itemsnot shown in FIG. 5 , or fewer items. A ‘home’ function may bring a userto a start screen, such as the estate account summary display 500. A‘search’ function may allow the user to search for certain terms orphrases. Search unit 212, depicted in FIG. 2 , may manage the searchfunction for the ERS. In some examples, the items in menu bar 502 maydepend on the level of user access. For example, not all team membersmay see the “admin” function.

The ‘assets’ function may include a pop-down list to display the variouscategories of assets linked to the account. Some examples may includetangible and intangible personal property, real property, stock, mutualfund or other accounts, along with other assets described above. Theassets function may limit the available detail displayed depending onthe access level of the user as controlled by asset authorization unit204 described in FIG. 2 . The asset information retrieved by the assetfunction may be stored in ERS dataset 210, or provide further directaccess to other systems such as IFS accounts 125, described in FIG. 1 .

The ‘report’ function in menu bar 502 may activate report generationunit 202. The report function may include a pop-down list of reports asdescribed by FIG. 2 . One example may include a report listing alerts,upcoming deadlines, and past due deadlines. The report function may alsoinclude the ability to generate custom reports. The report function mayalso be limited depending on team member access by access authorizationunit 204 to comply with privacy and security regulations or policies.

The ‘forms’ function may allow user access to a variety of forms used bythe various teams. One example may include a notification letter tobeneficiaries. The ‘admin’ function may include functions available tosystem administrators, such as adding new team members, updated orchanging a team member's access level, adding or deleting relationships,accounts and other such functions.

Assigned relationships 504 may indicate which team members of thedifferent estate settlement services teams have been assigned to theestate's account. The listing may include a name, date assigned and astatus indicator 506 for the respective assigned team member. As oneexample, an exclamation point icon may indicate a caution, or thatsomething needs to be resolved with the relationship. For example, theERS may assign a relationship for the estate account to JeanetteGoldstein, but Jeannette has not yet acknowledged the assignment.

Accounts 508 may list all financial accounts associated with the estateaccount. The example of FIG. 5 depicts three other accounts associatedwith the example decedent estate account. A more complex estate may haveadditional accounts. An authorized team member may be able to retrieveadditional details about the financial accounts, such as account number,account location, balance, activity or other information by selectingone of the financial accounts.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process for an estateresource system in accordance with one or more techniques of thisdisclosure. The example shown in FIG. 6 is one example technique amongmany other possible example techniques. The flow diagram of FIG. 6 willbe discussed in terms of the computing device of FIG. 2

A centralized computing device, such as example computing device 220,may include an estate resource system, such as ERS 100A. Computingdevice 220 may create an estate account for a decedent of a financialinstitution (90). Computing device 220 may create the estate account inresponse to input from a team member of the financial institution whoreceived a death notification from a representative of the decedent'sestate, or from some other source. The estate account may include estateasset information as discussed above, including real and personalproperty, financial accounts and similar information. The estate accountmay also include task checklists for a plurality of estate settlementservices teams. Checklist manager unit 104 of computing device 220 maygenerate, customize and track completion of the task checklists, asdescribed above.

Computing device 220, via access authorization unit 204, may authorizeat least one team member of each of the plurality of estate settlementservices teams to access the estate account for the decedent (92). Theauthorized team member may have access to modify the checklist for aparticular team but only be able to view the status of the checklists ofother estate reconciliation teams. The authorized team member may haveaccess to add documents, comments, and send and receive messagesassociated with the decedent's account.

ERS 100A may manage the task checklists for any one or more of estatesettlement services teams based on input from a team member of each ofthe plurality of estate settlement services teams. In one example, anauthorized estate reconciliation team member may update a first team'schecklist to indicate that the first team completed one or more tasks(94). In some examples the one or more tasks may only be related to thefirst team's activities. In other examples the one or more tasks mayimpact other teams, such as “obtain and file appraisal of real propertyat address XYZ.” A real property appraisal may impact one or more otherteams, such as estate tax team (ETT) 116, which may need the informationto calculate taxes or ESA team 114, which may need to contactbeneficiaries with the appraisal information.

Computing device 220 may cross-reference each task on first team's taskchecklist against the other task checklists (95). Similarly, computingdevice 220 may cross-reference each task on any team's task checklistwith any other team's task checklist. In examples where a task has nolinkage to other task checklists, computing device 220 may simply notethe completion of the task, and make the completion visible toauthorized team members.

In examples where a cross-reference links the first team's checklist toa task on a second team's checklist, computing device 220 may alsoupdate the second team's checklist (96). For example, where a task onthe second team's checklist is conditional on the first task from thefirst checklist, computing device 220 may update the second task toindicate that the first task has been marked complete and that thesecond task may now be completed. As discussed above, computing device220 may update the second task by changing the font from “greyed out”and not selectable, to a different color, or removing a cautionindicator from the first task, or by some other technique. Computingdevice 220 may repeat this cross-reference action to manage the tasks onadditional checklists for additional teams. Any checklist maycross-reference to any other checklist with a variety of differentdependencies. In some examples the cross-reference may be conditional asdescribed above, or information-only without any dependency, along withother types of dependencies.

In some examples, simply updating the second team's checklist will beenough to manage the checklists. In other examples, computing device 220may also send a notification or an alert to the second estatereconciliation team via alert and messaging unit 206 after the firstestate reconciliation team completes a given task (98). For example, forsome steps in the urgent personal property process 420 depicted in FIG.4 , it may be more appropriate to send an alert to any affected teammembers, rather than updating another checklist.

A centralized computing device, such as computing device 220 thatincludes an estate resource system may have significant advantages overseparately maintained, uncoordinated team checklists stored in separateteam folders or files. An estate resource system, such as ERS 100A maymaintain the information gathered from the decedent's representativeand/or bank services in a central, secure location with different levelsof access as needed to protect privacy or meet other requirements.Moreover, ERS 100A may include additional advantages over simply storinginformation in a central location. ERS 100A may include informationtracking as well as notification and alerts that information isavailable, missing, past due or in some other status. This may improvethe efficiency of an estate reconciliation service by making theinformation status immediately obvious, so team members may act on theinformation more quickly. Also, coordinating and making tasksconditional on other tasks may have the advantage of preventingunnecessary work, or a team taking incorrect or unnecessary action.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: creating, by a computingsystem, a first task checklist for a first team and a second taskchecklist for a second team, wherein the first task checklist includes afirst task item not included on the second task checklist, wherein thesecond task checklist includes a second task item not included on thefirst task checklist, and wherein the second task item is dependent uponthe first task item so that completion of the first task item mustprecede completion of the second task item; outputting, by the computingsystem and to a first computing device accessible to the first team, afirst user interface that includes a representation of the first taskchecklist including the first task item but not the second task item;outputting, by the computing system and to a second computing deviceaccessible to the second team, a second user interface that includes arepresentation of the second task checklist including the second taskitem displayed as having a locked status and being not selectable,wherein the locked status of the second task item in the second taskchecklist for the second team is based on the first task item in thefirst task checklist for the first team not being completed;determining, by the computing system, that the first task item has beencompleted; and outputting, by the computing system to the secondcomputing device and based on determining that the first task item hasbeen completed, an updated second user interface that includes anupdated representation of the second task checklist displaying thesecond task item as having an unlocked status and being selectable, andwherein the second task item, when presented in the updated second userinterface, is visibly distinguishable from the second task item aspresented in the second user interface.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein determining that the first task item has been completedincludes: detecting input from the first computing device indicatingthat the first task item in the first task checklist has been completed.3. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting an updated second userinterface includes: cross-referencing the first task checklist againstthe second task checklist to identify the second task item included inthe second task checklist as being dependent on the first task item inthe first task checklist; and responsive to determining that the firsttask item has been completed, outputting, to the second computingdevice, the updated second user interface.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising: generating, by the computing system, a notificationthat the first task item in the first task checklist is completed; andsending, by the computing system, the notification to the secondcomputing device.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:generating, by the computing system, notifications of task due dates inthe first task checklist for the first team; and sending, by thecomputing system, the notifications to the first computing device. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising: cross-referencing, by thecomputing system, the first task checklist against a third taskchecklist to identify any tasks in the third task checklist that areconditioned on the completion of the first task item in the first taskchecklist.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: authorizing, bythe computing system, a first member of the first team to modify thefirst task checklist for the first team; and authorizing, by thecomputing system, a second member of the second team to view the secondtask checklist.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:generating, by the computing system, a first progress report indicatingprogress towards completion of tasks in the first task checklist;enabling, by the computing system, access to the first progress reportby members of the first team; generating, by the computing system, asecond progress report indicating progress towards completion of tasksin the second task checklist; and enabling, by the computing system,access to the second progress report by members of the second team. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein the first progress report indicates oneor more of: information about time required to complete the first taskchecklist, a delay in completing a given task on the first taskchecklist, or a process efficiency for completing the first taskchecklist.
 10. A computing system having a storage system and processingcircuitry, wherein the processing circuitry has access to the storagesystem and is configured to: create a first task checklist for a firstteam and a second task checklist for a second team, wherein the firsttask checklist includes a first task item not included on the secondtask checklist, wherein the second task checklist includes a second taskitem not included on the first task checklist, and wherein the secondtask item is dependent upon the first task item so that completion ofthe first task item must precede completion of the second task item;output, to a first computing device accessible to the first team, afirst user interface that includes a representation of the first taskchecklist including the first task item but not the second task item;output, to a second computing device accessible to the second team, asecond user interface that includes a representation of the second taskchecklist including the second task item displayed as having a lockedstatus and being not selectable, wherein the locked status of the secondtask item in the second task checklist for the second team is based onthe first task item in the first task checklist for the first team notbeing completed; determine that the first task item has been completed;and output, to the second computing device and based on determining thatthe first task item has been completed, an updated second user interfacethat includes an updated representation of the second task checklistdisplaying the second task item as having an unlocked status and beingselectable, and wherein the second task item, when presented in theupdated second user interface, is visibly distinguishable from thesecond task item as presented in the second user interface.
 11. Thecomputing system of claim 10, wherein to determine that the first taskitem has been completed, the processing circuitry is further configuredto: detect input from the first computing device indicating that thefirst task item in the first task checklist has been completed.
 12. Thecomputing system of claim 10, wherein to output an updated second userinterface, the processing circuitry is further configured to:cross-reference the first task checklist against the second taskchecklist to identify the second task item included in the second taskchecklist as being dependent on the first task item in the first taskchecklist; and responsive to determining that the first task item hasbeen completed, output, to the second computing device, the updatedsecond user interface.
 13. The computing system of claim 10, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to: generate a notificationthat the first task item in the first task checklist is completed; andsend the notification to the second computing device.
 14. The computingsystem of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: generate notifications of task due dates in the firsttask checklist for the first team; and send the notifications to thefirst computing device.
 15. The computing system of claim 10, whereinthe processing circuitry is further configured to: cross-reference thefirst task checklist against a third task checklist to identify anytasks in the third task checklist that are conditioned on the completionof the first task item in the first task checklist.
 16. The computingsystem of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: authorize a first member of the first team to modify thefirst task checklist for the first team; and authorize, a second memberof the second team to view the second task checklist.
 17. The computingsystem of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: generate a first progress report indicating progresstowards completion of tasks in the first task checklist; enable accessto the first progress report by members of the first team; generate asecond progress report indicating progress towards completion of tasksin the second task checklist; and enable access to the second progressreport by members of the second team.
 18. The computing system of claim17, wherein the first progress report indicates one or more of:information about time required to complete the first task checklist, adelay in completing a given task on the first task checklist, or aprocess efficiency for completing the first task checklist.
 19. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that,when executed, configure processing circuitry of a computing system to:create a first task checklist for a first team and a second taskchecklist for a second team, wherein the first task checklist includes afirst task item not included on the second task checklist, wherein thesecond task checklist includes a second task item not included on thefirst task checklist, and wherein the second task item is dependent uponthe first task item so that completion of the first task item mustprecede completion of the second task item; output, to a first computingdevice accessible to the first team, a first user interface thatincludes a representation of the first task checklist including thefirst task item but not the second task item; output, to a secondcomputing device accessible to the second team, a second user interfacethat includes a representation of the second task checklist includingthe second task item displayed as having a locked status and being notselectable, wherein the locked status of the second task item in thesecond task checklist for the second team is based on the first taskitem in the first task checklist for the first team not being completed;determine that the first task item has been completed; and output, tothe second computing device and based on determining that the first taskitem has been completed, an updated second user interface that includesan updated representation of the second task checklist displaying thesecond task item as having an unlocked status and being selectable, andwherein the second task item, when presented in the updated second userinterface, is visibly distinguishable from the second task item aspresented in the second user interface.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising instructionsfor causing the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:generate a notification that the first task item in the first taskchecklist is completed; and send the notification to the secondcomputing device.